Queen Elizabeth went nuts over nibbles, court told

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth was so incensed with royal police officers eating nuts from bowls left out in the corridors of Buckingham Palace that she drew lines on the sides in a bid to catch them out, a London court heard yesterday.

In emails submitted to the phone hacking trial of journalists at Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World tabloid, its royal reporter said he had learnt that a memo had been issued to all officers telling them to “keep their sticky fingers out”.

To laughter in the court, judge John Saunders told the jury that these were “unfounded allegations”.

“Queen furious about police stealing bowls of nuts and nibbles left out for her in the BP (Buckingham Palace) Queen’s corridors,” an email from royal reporter Clive Goodman to then editor Andy Coulson said.

It said staff had put out a selection of nuts including cashews, almonds and Bombay mix around the palace for the 87-year-old queen.